Living statue - sand sculpture

I always like trying something new, even at the risk of embarrassing myself. What's the worst that can happen, a bit of a red face but, I can get over that and working as an ephemeral artist all evidence of my failures would soon be gone. Until, that is, I decide to make a post about it.
I always say that sand sculpture is as much a performance as it is about the finished piece. I enjoy not knowing exactly how things will work out and working with an audience can give you live feedback and ideas along the way.

This was an interesting little project where I had to take my performance to another level and try out my none existent acting skills.

Korsor, Denmark was the location and I was invited to a small project by Kirsten Andersen. The project was in conjunction with a social program for troubled kids and they were to help us with the sculptures.
Kirsten wanted my piece to be used in a performance she was planning to make so it was more of a stage set than sculpture.
We talked about ideas and the concept formed of me at work creating a sculpture of two figures in a Romanesque environment. one would be just finished and I would be working on the other. Suddenly, while I went away to work on the other side of the sculpture the figure I was making would come to life and break out of the sculpture. After a bit of Choreography she would leave the scene and I would return giving a big double take at her disappearance. Aannndd Scene!

Kirsten had gotten an actress friend of hers to play the role of sculpture, she was really great although I can't remember her name to give her credit here. She was painted up with liquid clay to give her a more sculptural look. I really liked the texture it gave her skin as it dried. The color may not have matched the sand but because the performance was to happen at night it didn't matter. (most of the images here are from rehearsal)

The sculpture was all done very quickly and as I'm sure you will agree not my best. Again the night time would luckily hide all its imperfections and my sculpture quality. It would have been nice to have the actress pose for me live but there was no time. If I was to try it again this is what I would do.

There weren't many there to see the performance in the end. It was for more family and friends of the kids that were involved. I have to say that sand is a great material for anyone to try and work with. The kids seemed to come out of their shell and feel proud of what they had helped with. It was nice to be able to get them to help with making the stones and arches in the background. They really did it quite well and it made a nice surface to project images on during the performance.

I didn't get any calls from Hollywood about my acting but I enjoyed my experience and it all worked out nicely. Before I left Korsor I resolved the sculpture to make it something that could stand by itself while it was left on display for a few weeks. I made a negative impression of the actress where she used to be and a swirling pile of sand in the middle of the stage.

The biggest thing I learned from the whole experience was about the kids. Some had been in trouble with the law and others dealing with mental issues. They were teens who had no direction or passion in their lives but when they felt they were part of something in a creative and fun environment I could see them light up and hopefully it inspired some of them that the arts could be somewhere they could expend their energy and find their voice. Society seems to want everyone to be a cog in the machine but for many they just can't mesh. Maybe creativity is the machine they are looking for..

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

The Royal Orange - sand sculpture

Swiss army man - ice sculpture

Muck Baby nativity - sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite